Inner joy : new strategies to put more pleasure and satisfactions in your life /

We didn't get too excited when Bloomfield produced a string of joy/peace/lovethyself tracts (TM, 1975, et al.) throughout the Seventies: spillover from the Sixties, we reasoned. But, now? Still? Forever? The authors seem hardly to notice that time has passed and their thoughts have gone nowhere: they tackle our offending ""anhedonia"" (multiple inhibitions) as if they were the first to discover fear of pleasure, lust for success, and runaway guilt or worry. We are, naturally, much too uptight. And evidently the sermonettes here are supposed to help us go limp: ""Once and for all, you must eliminate the words wish, hope, and maybe from your vocabulary."" If that doesn't work, fall back on the old standbys--like the ever-popular respiratory shuffle (inhale to the left, count four, exhale to the right, and repeat). Or thrill to the exploits of one or another sad sack who finds out he's been so busy pursuing money that now, at age 51, he can no longer ""get it up"" with the wife or the secretary (""I've been a fool,"" he laments). This time around, the stuff may not even sell. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.